First Romanesque Architecture

First Romanesque, also called Lombard Romanesque, was one of the earliest Romanesque building styles in Europe, emerging in Lombardy in what is now northern Italy during the tenth and early eleventh centuries before spreading to Catalonia and southern France. Its exteriors are marked by bands of shallow blind arches known as Lombard bands, and its walls are thick with little sculptural decoration on the facades, while interiors were often covered in fresco painting. The style was carried across its range largely by Lombard stonemasons and the Comacine Guild, which gave buildings in Lombardy, Catalonia and southern France a broadly consistent appearance during this early Romanesque period.